Lamont sails to Paris for German reparations talks while his office offers influential figures discounted shares in the Alleghany Corporation.

Mitchell attends his first Federal Reserve board meeting and argues against raising interest rates to curb speculation.

Herbert Hoover is inaugurated as president and reappoints Andrew Mellon as Treasury Secretary to reassure business leaders.

Mitchell publicly pledges National City Bank's credit to prevent a market panic, openly defying the Federal Reserve's warnings.

William Durant secretly meets with President Hoover at the White House and warns of an imminent financial disaster.

The Young Plan for German reparations is finalized in Paris, largely due to David Sarnoff's negotiating skill.

Economist Roger Babson predicts a crash, causing a 3% market drop, but Yale's Irving Fisher declares stocks are at a permanently high plateau.

On Black Thursday, Lamont convenes the Big Six bankers, who pledge over $200 million to stabilize the collapsing market.

Richard Whitney places a high bid for US Steel on the exchange floor, temporarily halting the Black Thursday panic.

The market collapses on Black Tuesday, falling 12%; speculator Jesse Livermore has earned an estimated $100 million by shorting.

The National City-Corn Exchange merger collapses after the crash sends National City's stock far below the required price threshold.

Mitchell arranges a sham sale of National City stock to his wife Elizabeth to avoid paying 1929 income taxes.

Franklin Roosevelt wins the presidential election in a landslide over Hoover, and Democrats take control of Congress.

Senate counsel Ferdinand Pecora interrogates Mitchell before the Banking Committee, exposing massive executive bonuses and a tax-loss stock sale to his wife.

President Roosevelt signs the Glass-Steagall Act into law, separating commercial and investment banking and creating the FDIC.

The book traces the speculative boom of the late 1920s through the ambitions of National City Bank chairman Charles Mitchell and J.P. Morgan partner Thomas Lamont, who wielded enormous influence over both markets and government. Mitchell's public defiance of the Federal Reserve in March 1929 made him a celebrity but set the stage for his eventual downfall. The crash arrived in October 1929, with successive days of historic losses destroying fortunes and exposing the limits of private banker power to contain a systemic collapse. In the aftermath, the Great Depression deepened as Hoover's cautious response failed to restore public confidence, and Franklin Roosevelt won a landslide victory on a mandate for fundamental reform. Senate hearings led by Ferdinand Pecora exposed Mitchell's conflicts of interest and tax schemes, forcing his resignation and arrest. The crisis ultimately produced landmark legislation, as the Glass-Steagall Act restructured American banking and created new protections for ordinary depositors.

The rise and fall of Wall Street's most powerful men.

Aboard ship bound for Paris, Lamont secretly plots with Owen Young to merge ITT, RCA, and Western Union into a global monopoly.

After a sharp market drop, Mitchell phones speculator William Durant and they agree the Federal Reserve's policies threaten prosperity.

Jesse Livermore launches a massive coordinated short sale of $150 million in shares, netting $8 million profit in a single day.

Senator Carter Glass writes from his hospital bed condemning Mitchell's market intervention as illegal and vowing to see him disciplined.

Having failed to persuade Hoover privately, William Durant buys radio airtime and publicly blames the Federal Reserve for creating panic.

Raskob calls reporters to his new office and unveils his Equities Security Company as a vehicle to help ordinary Americans invest.

Mitchell and Durant meet for lunch as the Dow hits an all-time high, discussing a proposed tax on short-term stock transactions.

Jesse Livermore receives secret intelligence about the imminent collapse of British financier Clarence Hatry and positions himself heavily short.

Winston Churchill arrives in New York and begins trading heavily on margin, swept up in America's stock market fever.

Sharp market drops in late October trigger waves of margin calls while the stock ticker falls hours behind real-time trades.

James Riordan, president of County Trust Company, ends his own life after suffering devastating losses in the crash.

Hoover signs the Smoot-Hawley tariff bill despite protests from over a thousand economists, causing US trade to collapse by 60%.

The Bank of United States, with 400,000 depositors, fails after top bankers' emergency rescue attempt collapses at the New York Fed.

Pecora's hearings reveal that J.P. Morgan partners paid no income taxes in the previous two years due to large stock loss write-offs.

A jury acquits Mitchell on all tax evasion charges, provoking nationwide outrage at Wall Street's apparent immunity from consequences.

Beneath the headline drama of the crash lay a web of manipulation, private plots, and ideological battles that shaped the catastrophe. Speculators like Jesse Livermore used privileged information to profit from the market's destruction, while insider stock pools secretly exploited ordinary investors for enormous gains. Political figures like William Durant and John Raskob pursued personal agendas that blurred the line between public interest and private ambition. The crash's human toll was starkly illustrated by the suicide of banker James Riordan and the failure of the Bank of United States, which wiped out hundreds of thousands of depositors. Hoover's policy failures, including signing the disastrous Smoot-Hawley tariff, worsened the Depression and accelerated the public's loss of faith in Republican leadership. The Pecora hearings then dismantled the House of Morgan's carefully cultivated aura of moral authority, while Mitchell's courtroom acquittal proved that legal innocence and public redemption were very different things.

The schemes, secrets, and side stories behind the crash.

Michael Meehan organizes a secret RCA stock pool, using wash trades and planted media stories to inflate the price before insiders sell.

John Raskob hosts a lavish anti-Hoover dinner and pledges his personal fortune to fund a four-year campaign against the president.

Raskob hires aggressive journalist Charley Michelson to covertly plant damaging stories about President Hoover in the press.

Despite public optimism, Lamont privately writes to his son instructing him to liquidate approximately $4 million in Morgan stock holdings.

Raskob unveils a large architectural model of the Empire State Building at a lunch for financiers, publicly claiming the project as his own.

Lamont softens his partner's bearish economic warning memo before sending President Hoover a letter declaring the American economy brilliant.

Jesse Livermore publicly declares stocks are overpriced and the press accuses him of leading a deliberate bear raid against the market.

Mitchell learns his traders have purchased 71,000 shares of National City stock for $32 million, a sum the bank cannot afford.

Mitchell attends Bernard Baruch's dinner honoring Winston Churchill after the crash, hiding his alarm to avoid triggering bank-run rumors.

Mitchell tells bank president Rentschler he will personally borrow $12 million to buy the bank's own shares, risking his family's entire fortune.

William Durant publicly reveals his secret White House meeting with Hoover, claiming he had personally warned the president of the impending crash.

Senator Glass launches a fierce Senate attack on Mitchell, declaring him the man most responsible for the stock market disaster.

Democrats make major gains in the midterm elections, and Roosevelt wins easy re-election as New York governor, positioning himself for 1932.

Mitchell resigns from National City Bank after Senate testimony exposes an officer loan fund and widespread executive self-dealing.

Richard Whitney, once celebrated as Wall Street's White Knight for his Black Thursday intervention, is indicted and imprisoned for embezzlement.

The 1929 crash was shaped by a series of critical private decisions and hidden maneuvers that came to light only gradually. Wall Street insiders used secret stock pools and media manipulation to profit at the public's expense, while political figures like Raskob weaponized the press to destroy enemies and advance personal agendas. The crash itself exposed the private terror beneath Mitchell's public confidence, forcing him into desperate personal financial decisions to save his bank and his fortune. As the Depression deepened, key political turning points — including the Democratic midterm surge and Roosevelt's rise — shifted power away from the financial elite and toward federal reformers. The Pecora hearings became the arena where years of concealment were finally dismantled, forcing Mitchell's resignation and exposing J.P. Morgan's secretive privileges. The full arc of accountability concluded with the symbolic imprisonment of Richard Whitney, revealing that even Wall Street's most admired figures were not beyond the law.